Darkness...

That’s all I could see when Isis brought my body to the ‘Negative Space,’ as she called it. I felt my limbs go numb instantly and my thoughts seemed to be literally swimming, as if they were going over waves in my head. Every clear image was now distorted like it was cut up and thrown into a kaleidoscope or repainted with water coloring. I almost felt like I was not even there. Like I no longer existed and I was slipping away.

“Puppet Master! Quick build something!” Isis’s voice rang through the dark void.

My thoughts instantly went to the world I imagined when she first asked me to create a hub world. The image seemed to be distorted but then cleared. Then nothing…

Nothing…

Bright…

Nothing…

World…

Nothing…

Sun…

Nothing…

Round…

White Dawn…

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I awoke standing in a great flat field of white stone. The utter lack of noise was beyond conception of the mind. Even the everyday white noise we took for granted and barely noticed, was gone and I found myself actually feeling as empty as the white expanse around me. I realized the reason why I was feeling so empty was because of my missing heart, or the lack of one. That wasn’t new to me in any way, but it was sort of sobering in a way considering how I’m feeling in this world and how it’s simple idleness is getting to me.

“Is this it? Is this all you could conjure?” Isis remarked unimpressed.

I realized where I was, and actually began to notice my surroundings. Of course the dizziness was still there, but after a few minutes I found myself being able to take in the scenery. I looked around to find nothing but the great white expanse I would use as my template. I stomped on the solid white surface and felt that it indeed was a very hard stone. But I felt something else…

“Whoa...” I whispered out loud.

“WHAT THE HAY?!” Rainbow chimed in.

I felt the world. The whole planet and everything inside and around it. I felt all of space and all of universe I just created with my imagination alone. This was my mind that was giving me these feeling and the world bending to its will. I was ecstatic, but I felt the other creations that I made when coming here. I looked up.

I was greeted by the sight of three other orbs and a strangely colored sky. One was the blue new born sun, that the two planets revolved around. The other was the shared moon between them. They all didn’t move yet, and there was currently no such thing as shadow or shade. Everything was bright but my eyes adjusted to see that white and blue wasn’t the only thing that I saw. The sky of the current planet I’m standing on was green and it coated the other celestial bodies in a greenish tint. I smiled at my victory for creating the template.

“Puppet Master I need plants to survive, and I’d hate to rush your creation but… I already feel myself withering.”

“Sorry, I’ll terraform the planet now.”

I decided finishing one now was the best idea. I chose to fully terraform the planet I was currently standing on, and brought my mind's attention to the planet. I first added mountains.

The ground began to shake as I lifted my hands in the air slowly for dramatic effect, smiling the whole time I was doing it. Mountains began to form randomly, and the world began to shape itself into a rocky landscape. Soon the only easily traveled roads were the deep valleys that covered my new planet and the small rocky path ways. The mountains were made up of loose rock that fell and slid across the sloped surface at the slightest touch. The mountains themselves haven’t changed color from the white default material that was first created.

I quickly changed that, by adding grey and brown to the respective matter. I then created the dirt, and laws of the world. I created a giant magnetic plate that was flat, and its positive polar side faced the equally large planetoid object in the sky. I quickly created another plate in that planetoid object that also had its polar positive facing the planet I was currently on. They couldn’t affect each other because their magnetic forces weren’t strong enough to reach each other.

I fixed that pretty fast as well.

They were now pushing away from each other because of the polar opposites. A fact I corrected by adding gravity to both of them while moving the sun and moon away from them so they wouldn’t be effected. The sun itself I chose to keep simple and made it like Celestia’s where it’s small enough to revolve around both planets. A fact I might change later.

As for the planet I still stood on, I then made sure that the mountains were all rock that protruded out of the ground, like they were forced up by a force that I will explain later. The dirt I let settle at the bottom of valleys, and up along the bases of the mountains. I placed the grass where all the dirt laid and removed some where water couldn’t condense. I then placed trees and forests in the world so at the bottom of valleys there were lush green fields or forests that surrounded the sources of water at the valley floor. The trees themselves were at times ten stories tall and some just four.

I then found the mountains rather plain, so I added moss to all the rocks so they’d have some form of life that would cover the mountain tops in a small amount of green foliage. I then took in my immediate surroundings, and mentally patted myself on the back when I realized how beautiful that actually looked.

I was standing in the bottom of a valley that had mountains on all sides around me to form a circle that stretched just two miles wide. I decided I couldn’t have that so I flattened the immediate area so I’d be able to have more room in this location for something special. Something that I needed. Something that a king can’t do without.

A castle.

I chose something like the Taj Mahal only much larger, and the towers are connected to the main structure that was a massive dome, similar to the dome of the white house. Only the tip would be nonexistent and the building itself would be shaped into a six pointed star with a watch tower on each one. The castle would be more like a city, with its many rooms that can fit 5,000 people in each point of the star, that stretches two miles in each direction. The center piece of the star shaped building was the dome itself that will rise twenty stories high while the watch towers would be forty stories tall.

The star shaped building that the dome rested on will not have a conventional roof because the roof was covered with dirt and a real flower garden rested on top of that. The flowers were all sorts of colors, but most consisted of white and yellow, while the remaining ranged from red to blue. There were vines that crept their way up the sides of the building and some even reached the top of the ten story walls. The whole castle was made of a white material similar to marble, but it was ten times as strong so that a blast of explosives wouldn’t make them so much as shake.

The throne room was inside the dome itself, and the throne was made of the same material the floor was, but the seat had a purple pillow resting in it for comfort. The dome was actually separated into many rooms and you could only enter through the large double doors at the north entrance, unless you had expressed permission to use the patio behind the throne.

The double doors would open into a larger room with a lower ceiling than expected, because the dome was twenty feet above the floor and was filled on the inside so there was no hollow space inside it. There was a hallway that led from the front double doors to the throne room that ended just short of the other side of the dome.

I found myself standing in the throne room itself, and behind me were two pillars parallel to each other with a balcony that was behind that. A marble guardrail kept anyone from falling off and the floors were just as white as marble, still made of the high strength material I’ve invented. The Throne itself also sat in front of the two pillars in the center of the room, and it faced the golden double doors that lead into the throne room itself.

The rest of the interior was still being planned in my mind, so I wasn’t sure if this would be the final product of the castle.

I then decided now was a good time to pull out Rainbow and Isis so when I sat down on my throne I pushed them out of my body onto the white floor several feet in front of me. Rainbow fully materialized before Isis and her expression was almost comical because of the sudden loss of jaw muscle control.

“Hahaha, Rainbow are you ok?” I asked with a smile that was hidden under my helmet.

Isis looked over at her with a smile.

“I think you broke her Puppet Master… or should I call you my king, now that I’m staying in your world?”

“Well, you may call me Puppet Master. You and Rainbow are I guess… my friends. Rainbow’s more of a wife now though.” I say looking at her with her continued baffled expression before she sputters from my statement.

“W-WIFE?!” she exclaims.

“Yeah, why not? You can be my queen; it is my kingdom so I can make it happen. Hell I even have the power to marry us without a priest because of my self-given title.” I expressed smartly.

“W-well I don’t know I-I mean I don’t know if I love you…” she trailed off with a blush on her face, while averting her gaze to look about the room.

I was genuinely surprised when she said that. I was prepared to let her be my wife just for the hell of it since she actually loves me now. But she doesn’t even know it herself. I tilted my head in confusion, but straightened it quickly so she wouldn’t catch it.

“Well all right.” I replied. “I’m not done with all the worlds yet so I think I’ll finish those before we do anything more…Actually you know what. I don’t have a lot of ideas but I know the basic landscape for both planets that still aren’t colored yet.”

“Wait, Puppet Master.” Isis started calmly. “Remember we need to get the aid of the many gods and deities that litter the worlds. I also will need a council room, where we can discuss the actions the worlds will be doing. And since we have a world of our own, we’ll need to complete it and make it look beautiful and appealing to all characters of gods.”

“Actually, that is accurate to what I was going to do. This planet that we are on right now is called White Dawn. Its landscape will be filled with many creatures that look odd but are beautiful in their own way. The big planet that’s in the sky currently is going to be called Midnight. The moon I don’t know what to call, but it’s going to fly around in a one eighty around both planets.” I explained my rough estimation of the final product, minus a few details.

“What will Midnight look like?” asked Rainbow Dash curiously.

“Well, Midnight will be the planet created out of nightmares. It will be filled with a harsh environment and a VERY unstable world where life needs to almost constantly move to be safe from the natural cycles of the world. So basically if you stand in one place for too long you WILL die.” I answer her with another smile hidden under my headgear.

Unfortunately the link between us three hasn’t deteriorated, and they both looked at me with a small trace of worry on their features.

“Don’t do that please...” replied Isis, shifting uncomfortably.

“Ok. Now what do we need to do first? Rainbow is ok, but I want to improve her skills to the point where I can safely send her out, knowing she wouldn’t end up in Terraria.” I ask bringing up a real issue.

Isis took this moment to ponder my statement and responded. “Well, make a bed that will be your spawn point. If one of you dies I’ll have to open a portal to get you. Well actually since this is your world you can come back whenever you want by using its natural power and allegiance to you. Rainbow on the other hand will have to use the spawn points.” Isis responded with a solution.

I was momentarily a little dumbfounded. “Allegiance?” I inquired in a questionable tone.

“Yes. This world is very powerful, and since you are its creator, it has no choice but to obey your commands. You’ve already been flexing your hold over this world by giving it matter and planets.” she answered, matter-of-factually.

“Oh ok, now I get what you mean…” I paused for a moment and Isis noticed this so she stayed quiet. “How powerful is this place?”

“When you’re here, you are more powerful than anything in the known universes… in fact you’re currently the most powerful being in all the universes since you’re a creator. You already have access to channel this realm's power through you at any given time, but you can’t feel it as much as I do.” Isis admitted, wincing a little.

I tilt my head and look at her with a raised eyebrow. “How powerful am I?”

“Well, you basically radiate power right now. If I get any closer to you, I’d feel disoriented by the amount that’s simply flowing through the air. But if a creature not as sensitive to divine power approaches you, like Rainbow Dash here,” she motions to the Pegasus beside her. “They would feel waves of energy coming off of you. You can easily suppress them if you look for them. But I recommend you keep that trait active and even play around with it when here. The other gods will need to be kept in line if arguments arise, which I promise they will.”

“Speaking of which.” I stated. “Do they know what I am?”

Isis’s head seemed to lose all motor function for a millisecond so it looked like it was about to fall before she righted it. “Well, actually no. You basically are a new god to them. As long as you do what you’re good at and make yourself look like an actual god, they’ll believe you to have similar abilities as one, if not more powerful ones.”

“I know how to look like a benevolent ruler. But what about creators? Do they know about them?”

“Yes, every god already knows about what a creator is because we all have enough power to sense them working on us when we are being… created.” she replied after a pause.

Rainbow looked unbelievably bored and started walking around the room for something to do. She started to look at the white pillars that stood opposites of each other, and held up the small portion of the dome and separated the balcony and the throne room and walked between the pillars and toward the center of the balcony. She put her forehooves on the guardrail and looked out at the horizon. Her mouth dropped slowly but surely.

“Do you think I’ll be able to experiment with a minor god? Or a deity?” I ask, after contemplating something.

Isis seemed confused. “A deity? Why? What could you get out of researching deities?”

“I want to create a creature in this world that will be able to act as a god-killer. If ever I want to go to another world where a god or deity tries to hide, then I want a creature that will seek them out, and kill them.” I tell her.

“Why would you want something like that?” she seems slightly horrified.

“If a god commits a crime here, and I’m not able to get to them because they escape through a portal then I’d like to be able to bring them before the council and show them what happens to those who betray me. More importantly, it will show them I have the ability to actually fight a celestial war with my creatures against other gods.”

Isis sighed in defeat but also some heartbreak. “It makes sense and I agree… but I don’t like it.” she stated solemnly.

“You don’t need to. A good cause sometimes needs a few bad deeds.” I responded emotionlessly.

“Yes, but it doesn’t mean it’s right to go to extremes just to-what is Rainbow doing?” Isis asked looking past my throne.

I felt what Rainbow was doing and feeling, but I had to see to be sure. I leaned to my right and peered over the side of my throne to look at the rainbow-maned Pegasus, that was now sprawled out on the floor belly up. She had the most blissful smile I’ve ever seen on her face as if she just overdosed on happy pills. I snickered when I saw this ,and I was almost confused when I realized she was actually the only one exposed to my sun so far… which actually confused me more than the situation.

My sun was actually radiating a subtle amount of happiness, that was pooling over Rainbow Dash as she sat in its rays. She must have started feeling it after going onto the balcony, and decided to lay down and soak up as much as she could. To be honest, I wasn’t even aware of making that, and obviously Isis thought the same.

“You should take everything into account when you create something. Your opinion of the sun was a happy thing that people or ponies will love… and that’s what you created. Be careful with everything you create, or you’ll make something you don’t intend.” Isis expressed with a sagely nod.

“Well I think I’ll keep the sun.” I replied with a smile as I watched Rainbow, whom didn’t care how many eyes were on her. “Maybe after the council, the gods can go outside and feel joy once more… maybe a heartless entity will even find a heart…” I finished, thinking of my own emptiness in my chest.

Isis looked at me sympathetically, but I ignored her and let my emotions express disapproval of her sympathy. She understood, but it didn’t go away.

“You know, maybe you can go join her.” Isis suggested slyly.

I smiled. “Maybe. I have a few ideas of the other planet.”

I got up from my throne and moved around it. I quickly placed all my armor and wings in my inventory so the rays will hit my unprotected body. As I got closer to Rainbow she seemed to fidget a little before opening her eyes and smiling at me as I laid down to her right. We shared an affectionate gaze, but hers was more meaningful than mine. I closed my eyes and partially spread my limbs to semi match Dash’s fully splayed form.

I let the sun’s rays soak into my skin as I brought power to the planet across the sky. I easily covered it in a black eternal cloud that will forever block out the sun from that planet. I began my secret terraforming, that only a creature as omniscient as Isis would be able to see. However a hoof distracted me as it gripped my hand slightly. I kept my eyes closed because I could feel Rainbow looking at me in an affectionate way, while her right hoof was in my hand. I in turn squeezed back.

“Hey Puppet Master?” she asked seemingly hesitant.

“Yes Rainbow?” I replied calmly with a warm smile.

“…N-nothing.” she stuttered and she looked back up into the sky before a thought hit her. “Actually, can you make the sky blue? I don’t really like it green.”

“Yeah, I was more going for something different… but if it makes you happy.” I replied while removing a few elements from the sky to make the refraction of light turn the sky blue.

Even more of the sun's rays seemed to reach us, and happiness flooded our bodies.

“…Pup. I love you…” admitted Rainbow.

“I can’t lie to you…”I replied solemnly. “I still don’t love you… but I want to. My body just isn’t ready to love a pony.”

I felt a pang of pain in Rainbow’s heart. I opened my eyes and rolled into a kneeling position, it caught Rainbow’s attention and she opened her eyes to watch me as I placed my head in front of her face. My lips pressed against hers, and I poked at her mouth to signal my tongues longing to enter her mouth. She smiled and allowed entry and we shared a passionate kiss. One that Rainbow thoroughly enjoyed, and one I was actually a little hesitant to enjoy it. But the kiss didn’t seem as alien as our relationship, and I was able to get some enjoyment out of it.

Our lips broke and our tongues untangled as I pushed away slowly. I looked into her eyes and told her something I hoped will reassure her emotions. “Rainbow… I am ready to love you. My body isn’t. If you’d just let me change myself to be able to love you back, then I’ll be happy to be with you forever. But I don’t mind if we go on dates.” she shook her head as her heart reignited.

“Don’t change yourself to love me.” she commanded affectionately. “I want to know you truly love me. Not with a heart that you give yourself, but with your own. And I don’t care how long it takes. I want your love to be true, not a gift.” she admited with sadness in her voice, but confidence in her words.

I rolled back over onto my back and grabbed a hold of her hoof again.

“If that’s what you wish…” I simply replied.

“Awwww…” Isis cooed behind us, eliciting a smile from us both. “You two are like a really bad romance novel.” she joked with a playful tone.

“Go have sex with a tree.” I retorted jokingly.